Saturday, June 11, 2011

A wealthy businessman who has been cleared of three separate murder charges has walked away from another major trial.

Millionaire Arran Coghlan, 39, declared ‘I’m no Teflon Don’ after he escaped charges of masterminding a plot to flood the UK with cocaine.

Coghlan sat back in court and laughed as he told the judge: ‘I’ve booked a two-week cruise.’

In 1996, Coghlan was acquitted of the gangland murder of drug baron Chris Little, dubbed the ‘Devil Dog Mobster’ because he set his rottweilers on rivals.

Little, 32, was shot dead at the wheel of his Mercedes but Coghlan was cleared after telling the jury he was playing computer games at the time of the killing. In 2002, Coghlan was accused of the horrific murder of drug dealer David Barnshaw, who was kidnapped, forced to drink petrol and burnt to death in the boot of a car in September 1999.

The £5million case against Coghlan and others collapsed when it was revealed police had failed to pass on vital information about another possible suspect.

And in February 2010, he was arrested after Stephen ‘Aki’ Akinyemi, 36, was found lying dead in a pool of blood in the bathroom of Coghlan’s £2million Cheshire mansion.

Coghlan dialled 999 and told police he had been stabbed in an unprovoked attack by Mr Akinyemi.

He was charged with murder but the case was dropped when the Crown Prosecution Service said it could not prove Coghlan had not acted in self defence.

Coghlan, who drives a Bentley Turbo, lives in a mansion in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, where he rubs shoulders with Premier League footballers and soap stars. He claims he runs a legitimate enterprise offering consultancy services to businesses and says he has been victimised by detectives in a decade-long campaign.

Coghlan – who survived an attempt on his life in a bar on New Year’s Day, 2009 – emerged from Strangeways prison in Manchester on Thursday night and said: ‘I’m no Teflon Don like the police say I am.’ Read More